Delivering The Strategy

68 JORDAN BUSINESS FEBRUARY 2010

From a first-part series in last month’s issue that looked at the high failure rateof company strategy implementation to a second and final part that looks intoits effective implementation, Robin Speculand outlines eight areas of focus that could lead to the successful implementation of organizational strategy.

n the first part of this two-partarticle, strategy that fails to translate into execution was

posited as a question that leaders needed to be asking themselves. Leaders know from the staggering failure rate of strat-egy implementation that more time must be spent considering its mechanisms and merits. The recent bout of global reces-sion has placed greater pressure than ever before on leaders to deliver on their strategy promise to shareholders, and for strategic and customized implementa-tion to be conducted.

After ten years of research in the field,eight areas of strategy focus have been discovered in organizations that have successfully implemented their strate-gies. The eight areas of excellence in execution are captured within what is called Implementation Compass. These include people, business case, commu-nicate, measure, culture, process, rein-force and review.

Excellence in execution is not just about changing measures or communi-cating strategy. It is about doing these eight things well and simultaneously. Research shows that one in ten organi-zations that successfully implemented their strategy worked in all eight direc-tions of the Compass simultaneously. During the implementation journey, different emphasis is applied at differ-ent times but all eight directions are constantly acted on and reviewed.

Shifting Approaches, AttitudesImplementation is about taking the right action. It is what staff members do ev-ery day that makes or breaks the strat-egy. Leaders are responsible for identi-fying what actions staff members must take and then ensuring they are doing the right things. Despite a similarity in strategy, different organizations have different implementation strategies. In preparing to execute the strategy, lead-

Delivering The Strategy

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ers must first assess an organization’sreadiness. In much the same way that financial, customer analysis, trainingand needs analyses are conducted, an organization’s current state must be an-alyzed. It is only then that leaders can identify the right actions to take. Far too

often, an implementation launch is little more than a town hall meeting, multi-media presentation and a coffee mug.

Any significant shift in strategy requires asignificant change in day-to-day activitiesthroughout the organization. Leaders have

69JORDAN BUSINESS FEBRUARY 2010Feature

a fundamental responsibility to create the right conditions for implementation in the organization, and to guide staff members on how to execute the strategy.

A case to consider would be Mark Hurd, who replaced Hewlett-Packard’s chief ex-ecutive officer Carly Fiorina in early 2005.Hurd won the board over by walking into his first meeting with them and articulat-ing what he saw as the problem and how he would resolve it. When Hurd joined Hewlett-Packard, he did not make any fun-damental changes to the strategy. Howev-er, many of his initial actions were in exact contrast to those of his predecessor. While Fiorina immediately started acting, Hurd determined what the right actions were. He spent much time connecting with people across all businesses and testing the beliefs he had presented to the board.

In All Directions To identify the right implementation ac-tions, the leadership team assesses the organization on the eight areas of excel-lence in the Compass while preparing to roll out the new strategy. They rate the

organization on a 10-point scale for each direction by asking questions such as “Do staff members have the competen-cies to execute the new strategy? Do our

staff members know what to do differ-ently on Monday morning? Does all our staff know what the new strategy is and why it has been adopted? Do we have the right measures for the new strategy? Where can we redesign the process so it is more supportive and effective?”

Once completed, a Strategy Implemen-tation Readiness Assessment (SIRA) is transferred onto a radar layout that clearly shows strengths and areas of concern in preparation for the imple-mentation. Specifically, it prepares leaders by allowing them to identify where they need to place their focus and understand more fully what is re-quired to implement the strategy. A banking client in the Gulf used SIRA to identify what needed to be done to implement their strategy. After craft-ing the strategy for two years with the assistance of a major consultancy

house, the next step was, naturally, to implement it. This strategic imple-mentation assisted the leadership team in recognizing the strengths and weak-nesses of the current situation and in ensuring the strategy stayed on course. Once the radar layout was complete, the team could immediately see the organization’s strengths and weak-nesses in preparing to implement the strategy. For example, major areas of concern were found in communicating the strategy to the whole organization and in redesigning processes to sup-port the strategy.

No Such Thing As A Stupid QuestionThere are questions every leadership team needs to ask on completing SIRA: we are doing well, but what more should we do? What should we do less? What are we doing that is required, but are doing too frequently? Perhaps too much time is spent emailing or in meetings. What should we keep doing? For example, fre-quent feedback to staff members on the implementation journey. What should we start doing that is different to what we have done so far? There may be, for example, recognition programs to rein-force the right actions. What should we stop doing? There may be actions that no longer add value to the new strategy.

Implementation fails too frequently because leaders are not ensuring that their staff members are taking the right actions every day. Identifying the right actions and then applying the processes to make certain that staff members are taking them are necessary stages, as is the guidance of employees through the challenges that lie ahead. Leaders must also stay engaged through the implementation journey and consis-tently review implementation. If this were an easy task, there would not be such a high failure rate. Only through a change in approach, attitude and ac-tions can an organization achieve ex-cellence in execution.

Robin Speculand is chief executive of Bridges Business Consultancy Int. His lat-est book is Beyond Strategy – The Leader’s Role in Successful Implementation.

Implementation is about taking the right action. It is what staff members do every day that makes or

breaks the strategy.

Implementation fails too frequently because leaders are not ensuring that their staff members are taking

the right actions every day.